Some in Alabama say they will support Roy Moore even if the charges of pederasty are true because they will not under any circumstances vote for the Democrat. What has the Democratic Party done to the people of Alabama that justifies such hatred? Democrats after all got them cheap electricity, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid among hundreds of other programs. Of course all that is ancient history -- but by that standard, the Civil War is part of ancient ancient history and few in Alabama have forgotten that. The only thing I can think of is Democratic support for the Civil Rights movement. That is, the Democrats betrayed the white race.

Dennis Parker shows wisdom in reminding us that we can't simply bask self-assuredly in the dramatic electoral victories of the Center and the Left in last week's balloting. As the Alabama Republican Party and its ditto-heads make clear in the US Senate race, the Right has no intention of ceding political ground to decency and a concern for others.

Graffiti on a building used for Sunday school and Bible study at Saint Francis United Methodist Church in Cary. Photo courtesy of Saint Francis United Methodist Church // Raleigh The News & Observer

A Cary church was vandalized with spray-painted racial slurs, “KKK” and other messages over the weekend.

At about 4 a.m. Sunday, Saint Francis United Methodist Church on Kildaire Farm Road in Cary discovered spray-painted graffiti on one of its buildings used primarily for Sunday school and Bible study. Church members, staff and volunteers were able to clean the graffiti before morning service was finished Sunday.

Messages including “Kill all n-----,” “N----- church,” “KKK” and “F--- Jesus” – along with offensive images – were painted over the outer walls, windows and doors of the building, according to photos posted on Facebook on Sunday by Tyler Bentley. He said he and others spent three hours removing the graffiti from the building.

“Just a PSA that this sort of thing is happening in your communities, too,” Bentley wrote in his post sharing the photos. “This is why people say racism is still alive.”

Bentley’s post had been shared more than 140 times, had more than 50 comments and 170 reactions as of 4 p.m. Monday.

Graffiti on a building used for Sunday school and Bible study at Saint Francis United Methodist Church in Cary.

On March 5, 1962, the first working day after Kennedy's announcement of the planned resumption of atmospheric testing, I joined a group from the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) to sit down in front of the Atomic Energy Commission in New York City. It was the first day after my 18th birthday and my first arrest.

The 20th century was the international moment for humanity. The rise of imperialism brought WW1. The war brought a challenge to nationalist dominance among socialists, and the October Revolution. The postwar world was greeted by a wave of revolutionary fury in the developed capitalist countries, and elsewhere. The working class began the second (or third?) movement of its symphony.

A renewed internationalism rallied around the Soviet Union. The Russia question now defined the international left, pro or con, especially when postwar capitalism began to crack up.

In the 30s and 40s, the Soviets under Stalin were able to maintain their prestige despite the terror that negated the vestiges of post-monarchist democracy, the blood, torture and crushed freedoms. Partly it was blind faith. Partly it was humility in the face of the unparalleled sacrifice that crushed Nazism.

I speak from the standpoint of a red diaper who never joined the party, who identified with the New Left which partly defined itself as anti-Soviet, but anti-anticommunist. For folks who can't picture this, all I can say right now is, after the red scare of the 1950s, it was a thing and important in its way.

Like others, I read Trotsky but was more excited by Cuba, Vietnam and China than the Fourth International. After China chose Nixon over the Vietnamese in their growing fear of the Soviets, I joined with critical China sympathizers, following the trend including Cuba, Vietnam and various Global South revolutionaries, which eventually re-sanctified the Soviet party.

That didn't last, for obvious reasons. And my generation doesn't like to reflect on that, also for obvious reasons, but not justifiable ones. After 1991, the old time religion was overshadowed first by anarchism, then by 'third camp' socialism, an offshoot of Trotskyism that saw Stalinism (and everything that issued from it) as reactionary through and through, not anti-capitalist in any meaningful way.

Is there room in democratic socialism for another point of view? There seems to be room for a lot else, some of it really nuts - at least at this point. Can internationalism rise again, and include the Soviet experience as a massive historical chapter of gains as well as losses?

"First, stating the obvious: the October Revolution brought the working class to power in a major country" -- No, let's be honest about this. It brought a party to power that claimed to represent the interests of the proletariat and which had substantial proletarian support in some major cities--that turned out to be a far cry from really empowering the proletariat in Russia, or what was left of it after the devastation of WWI. If we are going to try to learn from October 1917 we need to hold ourselves to a brutally honest analysis and not engage in ideological obfuscations.

It's great that this latest edition has Bill Knight's story from the PEKIN Daily Times in Pekin, Illinois (not the Peking Daily Times). For those of us in the area, this is an interesting slip of the tongue, as Pekin High School went through a huge battle 20 years ago, when they changed their team mascot name from the "Pekin Chinks." ...

How it is very traumatizing for kids to see their teachers arrested and their school closed down in front of their eyes.

This is the mentality of the colonizers either in the West Bank or Gaza. They just don't care on the children well-being or rather, they are confident they are immune to punishment from the international community.

TUNE IN FRI. NOV. 17 (1pm) "Catalyst" on KFAI RADIO: hear from STUDENTS For JUSTICE For PALESTINE a University of Minnesota student group. KFAI 90.3/106.7 FM Minneapolis-St.Paul Online after broadcast on CATALYST@kfai.org

....a good analysis of some instances of capitalist activity attempting to pose as justice, as reasonable methods to establish ways to tend to living... Labor is all stolen in capitalism, so I’m not referring to it as work. Work is what we do to live together, to maintain us all, to complete our ways of interacting, etc., as Marx – and we – often enunciate.

What is described here is complexity, ways to divert people from analyzing our relationships together in capitalism; overcomplicating our understandings of where we’re living, diverting us from the simple organizing that socialism is: We produce as needed and desired for our benefit, maintenance and enjoyment. We access together the results of our work. All work equals all work. None is done as the 8hour day/40 hour week. We just do – what we need, like, can do – together – as we will. ...the opposite of what our unions attempt to enable, to support.

I know you're going to think that I'm weird, but I've got to tell somebody. If folks are beginning to equate Trump and Hitler, they are right to do so. I've been an astrologer for the past 35 years and if there wasn't something to it, I would have taken another direction years ago. Yesterday I was trying to figure out why so many Americans are supporting this president and decided to take a look at Germany's astrological chart during the rise and fall of the Third Reich. And sure enough the US is having the VERY SAME aspects that Germany had during that time! The foggy planet Neptune (illusion & delusion) squaring it's ascendant while Pluto (wrecking ball of the status quo) is transiting the second house and taking down government. Look for something to happen in mid to late December of this year regarding government, banking, or our values...all second house matters. All of these matters are in the forefront of the US and these transits are the reason for it. I don't think it can get as bad as the Third Reich, but this man is now on his way home from visiting all those authoritarian leaders. This is scary. Sometimes my thinking gets the best of me and I begin to believe he was there to solicit their support for a coup attempt. If you read my full email, thank you. If you don't believe it, that's ok, too. I just want to make SOMEBODY aware.

As you know, the Muslim Ban is an issue that isn't going away any time soon and, after watching some progressives, at times, try to be allies to Muslim communities but use problematic speech, we thought it was time to put this out into the world.

We've tried to account for many of the angles here including:

Why call it a Muslim Ban when the current version includes Venezuela and North Korea?

How can we tie in the humanitarian crises in Syria or Yemen to the Muslim Ban?

What are talking points progressives should absolutely avoid even if they seem to be everywhere?

This is the first part of our work where we're hoping to actively uproot lingering Islamophobia in progressive circles by sharing alternative language that we could and should be using instead of relying on anti-Muslim frames that are easily adopted within our own circles.

Please do read, share, and use this guidebook in your own work. I would love to hear if it's been useful for you, your organizations, or your campaigns. And please reach out to me if you have any feedback!

I also wanted to share this powerful video we made with Areej –– who was detained when the first Muslim Ban was implemented. She puts a narrative and story to a policy that may be hard to understand for many people:

Juan will discuss his new book, Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America's Tale of Two Cities, and lead a conversation around economic justice and class issues in the United States today.

Leslie Cagan has worked in peace and justice movements for more than 50 years. From the Vietnam war to racism at home, nuclear disarmament to lesbian/gay liberation, fighting sexism to working against U.S. military intervention, from support of Palestinian rights to police brutality to normalizing relations with Cuba, she’s been a central organizer in many struggles. She is currently the coordinator of the Peoples Climate Movement NY and serves of the national PCM leadership body. Leslie was the National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, a coalition that grew to 1,400 member groups. She’s has worked on progressive electoral campaigns, including serving as the Field Director in the 1988 Dinkins NY Mayoral race. Her writings appear in 10 anthologies and in scores of print and online outlets. She played a major role in winning back the first listener-sponsored media network and was chair of the Interim Pacifica Radio National Board.